Are current Emmu winning TV drama “The Pitt” and past Emmy winning drama “ER” kinda the same show with the same star?
I feel that way, but no one asked me.
“ER” creator Michael Crichton’s widow thinks so, and now she’s convinced a California appeals court to let her take this whole mishegos to trial.
Sherri Crichton says that when Michael made his deal for “ER” with Warner Bros TV in 1994, there was a clause — called a “frozen rights” provision — that said there would be no spin off or similar show.
But, of course, now we have “The Pitt” starring “ER” star Noah Wyle as an emergency room doctor with personal problems, and a bunch of staffers with the same — only it’s bloodier.
“ER” ran for 14 seasons on NBC, and was really a great always watchable series. Wyle closed the doors after the departures of Anthony Edwards and George Clooney as the main doctors. Wyle’s John Carter was one of the few cast who made it through the entire run.
Initially, Sherri Crichton was rebuffed by the courts. But now the Second Appellate District, Division Three in the State of California said her case can go to trial. They did, however, release Wyle and producer John Wells as defendants. It’s now Crichton vs. Warner Bros. TV.
Sherri Crichton says that in 2020 she was contacted about a reboot of “ER.” She wound up declining. So WBTV, she says, just plowed along with the plans for “The Pitt.”
Crichton’s complaint says:
“The Pitt is ER. It’s not like ER, it’s not kind of ER, it’s not sort of ER. It is ER complete with the
same executive producer, writer, star, production companies, studio, and network as the planned ER reboot.”
What will happen? Either the parties will settle — with WBTV giving Sherri a cut and credit for “ER” — or the whole gang will wind up in a courtroom.
Personally, I haven’t really watched “The Pitt” because it seemed like John Carter had moved to another emergency room and found friends with the same issues they had in Chicago. Only more graphic. Will Sherri Crichton win? This also seems a lot like cases in the music world where a new song sounds suspiciously like an old one, but no one wants to admit it.
In the appeal decision, there’s a long complicated explanation for why Wyle and Wells were separate from the case. But really, it doesn’t seem plausible that they thought “The Pitt” was different than “ER.”
